Musings on James 1:2-4 -Count it all joy?

James 1:2-4

2  Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

3  knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

4  And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

To one griefing these verses sound at first like a mockery of everything we know.  It forces us to ask some questions. 

What does the bible mean by joy?  The word joy is used about 182 times in the bible.  So it is a significant theme.  

To have joy in this context is to know that there are purposes and profits behind every trial, loss,  and difficulty that we face.  We can have an inner confidence and praise to God knowing that our greatest and most severe losses will produce in us a stronger, preserving, and steadfast faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  

This undying faith in the middle of loss is one of the greatest defeats the devil can experience. 

There is a joy knowing that the plans of the dark enemy of our soul  to have us "curse God and die" have been defeated by our trusting the Lord in the dark painful circumstance we face when suffering cataclysmic loss.  (Job 1&2)  Even as Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, knowing that his death would lead ultimately to God's glory, we are not kept from grief but saved from despair.  

So as we weep, ask our questions, struggle through the process of grief, let us also have  a godly joy that is trusting that all of this pain, loneliness, and loss of everything we knew, will be used by God's great power at work in us to make us more like Christ Jesus and be part of crushing the head of the serpent. 

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Prayer

LORD, I don't really understand how to consider what I have gone through joy.  It runs counter to every instinct in me as I strive to keep my head above water in this world of change.  Give me the ability to see the victory in this time of travail and turmoil.  Open my eyes to your work in me and others through this time of mourning and grief.  Allow the story of your victory over the evil one through my suffering provide a sense of joy to spring from my inner self.  Lord, remember how weak I am and help me to grow in enduring faith.  Amen